Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup

Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup

Organising body	Irish Football Association Football Association of Ireland
Founded	1941
Abolished	1949
Region	Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland
Number of teams	12
Most successful club(s)	Shamrock Rovers (4 titles)

The Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup was an association football competition that ran for eight seasons in Ireland between 1941 and 1949.

Each season's competition consisted of six teams from each of the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland), and their respective governing bodies (the Irish Football Association and the Football Association of Ireland).

Format

Played in knock out format, the matches were played on a two-legged basis. Dalymount Park, Dublin was used as the home venue by all the League of Ireland clubs. For the second round of the competition, the six first round winners were joined by the two best losers. It was an extremely popular competition, adding variety to the restricted war-time football diet and generated much needed and significant revenues to the competing clubs.

List of finals

Key:

†	Trophy was shared.
	Two-legged final. Aggregate score across two legs determined the winner; if score was level number of corner kicks determined the winner.

Season	Winner (number of titles)	Score	Runner-up	Venue
1941–42	Dundalk (1)	1 – 0	Shamrock Rovers	Dalymount Park, Dublin
1942–43	Shamrock Rovers (1)	0 – 2	Bohemians	Windsor Park, Belfast
		2 – 0 (2 – 2 agg.) (19 – 9 corner kicks)		Dalymount Park, Dublin
1943–44	Glentoran (1)	3 – 3	Belfast Celtic	Windsor Park, Belfast
		2 – 1 (5 – 4 agg.)		Dalymount Park, Dublin
1944–45	Bohemians (1)	2 – 2	Belfast Celtic	Windsor Park, Belfast
		1 – 0 (3 – 2 agg.)		Dalymount Park, Dublin
1945–46	Shamrock Rovers (2)	3 – 1	Belfast Celtic	Windsor Park, Belfast
		0 – 1 (3 – 2 agg.)		Dalymount Park, Dublin
1946–47	Shamrock Rovers (3)	3 – 1	Drumcondra	Dalymount Park, Dublin
		1 – 0 (4 – 1 agg.)		Windsor Park, Belfast
1947–48	Belfast Celtic (1) Distillery (1)	2 – 1†		Solitude, Belfast (1st leg)
1948–49	Shamrock Rovers (4)	3 – 0	Dundalk	Dalymount Park, Dublin

Performance by club

Club	Winners	Runners-up	Winning Years	Runners-up Years
Shamrock Rovers	4	1	1942–43, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1948–49	1941–42
Belfast Celtic	1 (shared)	3	1947–48 (shared)	1943–44, 1944–45, 1945–46
Dundalk	1	1	1941–42	1948–49
Bohemians	1	1	1944–45	1942–43
Glentoran	1	0	1943–44	—
Distillery	1 (shared)	0	1947–48 (shared)	—
Drumcondra	0	1	—	1946–47

See also

• Setanta Sports Cup
• Champions Cup (All-Ireland) sponsored by Unite the Union

External links

• Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup at the Irish Football Club Project
• All-Ireland Cross-Border Cup Competitions history
• Irish League Archive - Dublin and Belfast Inter-City Cup